August 6, 2007 –
This is definitely the craziest thing I’ve ever done but I enjoy the extreme-ness of it.
**WHITE WATER RAFTING ON THE NILE RIVER**
The morning began with monkey observing outside Tabasco as Meagan and I took turns changing and brushing our teeth. Then we went for a tasty pancake breakfast before the bus to Jinja came. But it came before we could finish, so sadly, the pancakes sat on the table with a few bites left.
Jinja was about an hour and a half away. More bus rides… but this one was exciting since we knew were approaching the majestic Nile River. The truth is the Nile doesn’t look that majestic. It IS the longest river in the world though and it IS might impressive. It’s decently big across. Sounds like a contradiction. Anyway, we made our bathroom stop, gathered for the meeting and headed up to grab life jackets, paddles and helmets. No wet suit and no shoes. Just bare feet, shorts and a t-shirt.
We were given a choice for how to take the river: Mild or Wild? What’s wild? One guide pointed at a picture where the raft was hitting a wave and going vertical. Talk about intense. We decided on WILD but I know we didn’t do wild for the most part anyway.
So here we go. Our guide was Roberto. He was really good with us. Laid back. “Don’t panic!” he said a lot. Eventually, I didn’t. He was good and I trusted him with our boat.
Hoo-wee! The first rapid we hit was a Class 3 (I think) called Morning Shower. Did NOT waste any time as the first hit sprayed us with water. Chilly but exhilarating! What were the names of the other rapids?
There were 11 in total that day and I remember about half of them:
Oh Shit!
Don’t Duck
The G-Spot
Sibling Rivalry
Big Brother… I think followed by Little Brother
Big Brother was a really scary one. Water churning, flowing fast and swirling around… this one you could hear from pretty far away. Oh yeah, there was also a waterfall with this one (of 2 metres). I kind of wanted to go over it but the water took us around it. At the same time, there was a thunderstorm brewing – we didn’t flip.
Right after, the rains came and quite hard. Everyone got windbreakers except for me. They ran out… but at least I know they didn’t do much for the ones wearing them. The only thing to do was to keep paddling to stay warm and get down the river. Singing helped (Grey skies are gonna clear up!) The water was so warm after, it made for a nice dip. But then it got windy so I was shivering again.
Back track to before lunch. We passed two Class 5’s without any problems. What always seemed crazy going in always turned out OK afterward. Many times I got back up after bracing for the splash and said, “Well that wasn’t so bad.” The prospect of the raft flipping made us hesitate going into the rapids. We practiced once in calm water and it was a little frightening. In the air pockets under the raft, I found myself alone and didn’t know if everybody else had already surfaced. And sure enough, when I came out, I was the last one up. Flipping the raft back was neat though and I wouldn’t have minded the flipping if we could do that.
However, we didn’t flip. The only mishap before lunch was when a wave bumped us in a Class 3, and I fell in along with three others on my side (including Meagan). A kayaker quickly picked me up and brought be back to the raft. Actually, I wasn’t too far from the raft when I resurfaced. Meagan wasn’t as lucky though. She tells a very panicked story where she was freaking out underwater and everything. And Roberto would just keep saying “Don’t panic!” This is all a blur now since other moments during the trip easily trumped it.
There was quite a finale to this adventure…
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